In Sproul Plaza of UC Berkeley, hundreds gathered for a dance party that began around 10pm on Thursday, February 25. At the peak of the party (around 12am) the 250 people dancing surrounded the loudspeakers as together they moved farther into campus. As we approached Durant Hall, a building currently being renovated, people began handing out communiques. We began to see a yellow light glow from inside the second story windows of the building, and then silhouettes of dozens of occupiers emerged. They rigged a few banners across the front of the building and descended to join the party.

The Durant Riot: Initial Brief February 26, 2010 by *

Berkeley, CA – In Sproul Plaza of UC Berkeley, hundreds gathered for a dance party that began around 10pm on Thursday, February 25. At the peak of the party (around 12am) the 250 people dancing surrounded the loudspeakers as together they moved farther into campus. As we approached Durant Hall, a building currently being renovated, people began handing out communiques. We began to see a yellow light glow from inside the second story windows of the building, and then silhouettes of dozens of occupiers emerged. They rigged a few banners across the front of the building and descended to join the party.

The occupation continued for a little over an hour, as occupiers and outside support began barricading their surroundings. The building, Durant Hall had once been a haven for East Asian Language studies, but is now being remodeled into another administration building. The occupation had the intention to point out this gross contradiction in university spending as well as articulate the need to escalate for March 4th. The point made, the occupiers and the supporters joined together to move the dance party away from an assured arrest action as police numbers slowly increased, in order to reserve their energy for the coming week.

As the crowd reached Telegraph and Bancroft (one entrance to UCB), the disruption of business as usual continued, as a handful of masked individuals grabbed trash cans and newspaper dispensers and knocked them over. The dance party continued to move past Bancroft, down Telegraph as more people joined the march and joined the destruction of capital. Now the windows of fast food chains smashed, the party settled in the intersection of Durant and Telegraph. The Berkeley police soon arrived, wearing helmets, armor and brandishing batons. However, there were 12 police and between two to three hundred dancers. The crowd scattered for a moment, expecting imminent police arrests, but to their surprise, the massive force they represented stopped the police cold in their tracks, thus shattering their feeling of submission. Those that began to burn trash cans and those that continued to stay simply because they felt empowered to do so, showed the strength even a small crowd can have against the brutal forces they faced.

The crowd began to swell in the intersection. Some 500 people were present, a combination of observers and protesters. The dance party continued to rage on as more and more people took the intersection, by now at least three hundred. Then without a clear reason, the police began to descend on the people in the streets. Some ran to the sidewalks to observe from a distance, others stood their ground, refusing to move. The police pushed people with their batons, the protesters pushed back and some were caught in the middle. Then an officer grabbed a woman at random and smashed her head to the ground. The protesters pushing back against the police began to grab for the woman to rescue her from further abuse, while even the observers at this point were surrounding the police, aware of the brutality at hand. The crowd nearly encircled the police, shouting, “Fuck the police!” and “Police brutality!” The police began to remove themselves from the scene, and line up again between the protesters and the campus, some 30 feet away from the crowd.

The atmosphere had changed now, the police had directly assaulted a person and charged at a crowd, most of whom were only there dancing. The crowd started forming a line, dumpsters were set ablaze and in an instant a largely passive group became a group intensely aware of the police presence. They confronted them, standing together, approaching a line of police that had by now grown, yet still outnumbered greatly. Even the observers became more brazen as many of them joined the protesters to face the police line, with cameras and iphones ready to snap a shot of the next assault on the crowd.

What had started as a dance party and occupation quickly turned into a direct confrontation with the police, whom had been following the protesters through out the night. For the next few hours the crowd stood firm; the crowd and the police pushed back and forth. A police car approached the line of cops, stopped and waited; within a few moments the police randomly grabbed a protester, struck him and plowed him into the asphalt with three officers kneeling on top his back. Ten minutes later, another car pulled behind the line of cops, and this time the police grabbed a woman who was rightfully shouting at the police for bloodying her nose earlier. Throughout the course of these arrests, observers and press were pushed back by the police, the police stating that they had to move away. The crowd grew more enraged, as with each police abuse spurring retaliations from behind the line of protesters in the form of thrown empty bottles and empty plastic paint cans.

Eventually, as the crowd collectively realized the painfulness of each interaction with the police, they withdrew from the line and proceeded East down Durant, in the process leaving a trail of burning trash cans and dumpsters. By 3am, the BART police arrived and the marching crowd dissipated.

Berkeley, CA – Durant Hall (next to Wheeler Hall) is occupied. Hundreds have stormed this building (that is being renovated).

updates:

12:10am: some UCPD (~5) present around the building, still trying to figure out what’s going on. They are spotlighting people near the entrance with flashlights, but a green chain-link fence obscures most of their view. People are dancing right outside.

1:30am: About 200 people inside. Doors are wide open but barricades are set up to keep cops out. There’s a few police on each side, a few hundred feet away from the building. Durant is under construction, so random materials and fences are keeping police out for now. Organizers have released a statement: Why Durant Hall?

1:45am: Students have emptied out of Durant, now going down Telegraph Ave smashing windows and turning over trash cans.

1:50am: Riot police have blocked students at intersection of Telegraph and Durant. Source on the ground reported a trash can on fire. Random people are joining the street party that is forming.

Marika Goodrich, 28, a UC Berkeley senior, was arrested at the intersection of Durant and Telegraph avenues and booked for assault on a police officer, inciting a riot and resisting arrest, according to Berkeley police Officer Andrew Frankel. Zachary Miller, 26, a UC Berkeley alumnus and an organizer for the “Rolling University,” was also arrested at the intersection and was booked for inciting a riot, resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer.

Goodrich is being held on $32,500 bail and Miller is being held on $22,500 bail. Both are being held at the Berkeley City Jail and are scheduled to be arraigned March 1, according to Alameda County records.

REBELLION DURING HARD TIMES IS ALWAYS VIOLENT........SOMETHING YOUR BOURGEOISIE ASS CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WILL BE AT 35% SOME DAY AND YOUR RICH BUT WILL STILL BE TALKING TRASH LIVING LARGE WITH NO PROBLEMS TO FIGHT OVER. YOU DON'T REPRESENT THE CALIFORNIA POPULATION SO FUCK OFF AND STOP SPEEKING FOR OTHER PEOPLE. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE REAL WORL OR THE PAIN PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING WITH NO WORK OR OPPORTUNITY. FOR SOMEONE TO DEFNED PRIVATE PROPERTY, YOU MUST OWN A LOT BECAUSE WHEN YOU NO LONGER OWN SHIT YOU DON'T GIVE A FUCK.

Some of us aren't in this fight for the middle class and not everybody has the same cause Some of us who work in solidarity with the students, have beef with much more than just the fee hikes. Some of us don't believe in reforming the system because we just don't agree with it in general. Some of us have different economic philosophies and have different idea of how society can be governed.

Sure some people are alienated by riots, but throughout history working people have used violent means (especially against class enemies and their property) in their struggles. People largely see the riots that happened after Oscar Grant was murdered in Oakland as the only reason the police officer is even been brought to court. Riots over the Poll Tax in Britain helped bring Thatcher and the tax down. The Stonewall Riots helped launch the gay liberation movement. I also seem to remember a rather large mural celebrating riots in Berkeley on Telegraph as well...

Also, to state that people who riot in response to attacks on their living conditions as opposed to following legal and sanctioned means (which is largely maintained, organized, and controlled via middle class people ie, the professionals and social managers in society) are 'hurting the cause' while those that do not somehow advance it, is backwards and plain wrong thinking. The elite don't back down unless we put up a fight - that's a fact proved in history and in struggle again and again.

"Go away. Get a fucking job. You're obviously a failure as a "student"." -

We're already here, and we have no plans on going anywhere. Those that can only survive in this society by selling their labor power for wages are choosing a side - either against or for the rich. If you find yourself on a different side than us, then you are siding with class enemies.

Well, according to the police, there were lots of people involved that weren't students, so apparently people are becoming involved in a movement that seeks to be confrontational and attacks capitalism - this is a good thing.

Further more, why do you think that people with jobs can't riot? Or that those who do riot somehow don't have jobs? Every slave dreams of revolt - some do it. My question to you: if you have a job and are really stuck in the shit, why you playing the bosses game?

The only mistake here is that this was watered down to the point where it resembled a frat party that poured out into public instead of a rebellion raging through the streets. I'm sorry, but I just get fucking disappointed with the street actions of "American Anarchists" most of the time. How do we expect others to take us seriously when it seems like we don't even take ourselves serious?

This isn't just about college students. It's about workers GETTING FUCKED OVER who no longer have a future and coming together with students to defeat those who represent and protect Wall St. AND WHY SHOULD WE BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR FUCKING MISTAKES THEY MAKE IN THEIR GREEDY CAPITALIST SYSTEM WE WON'T MISS WHEN IT'S ALL OVER? I PRAY FOR IT TO END EVERY NIGHT. WHERE IS OUR FUCKING BAILOUT BY THE GOVERNMENT????........THEY DON’T FUCKING CARE! GOVERNMENTS GOOD FOR NOTHIG BUT HELPING THE RICH MONOPOLIZE AND WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GREATFUL? FUCK THE SYSTEM! IT WORKS EVERYTIME FOR THE RICH AND WE HAVE TO PAY THEIR TAB. FUCK YOU! FOR STARTING A WAR IN IRAQ FOR PROFIT AND LYING TO US AND MAKING US FEEL SMALL FOR SPEAKING OUT. THE ANGER BUILS AND BUILD AND NO POLITICIAN LISTENS AND IF THEY’RE LISTENING, THEY ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT UNLESS YOU’RE A CEO. FUCK THE PEOPLE IN POWER. BUT HELPING THE FINANCIAL THEIVES IS JUSTIFIED BECAUSE “TO BIG TO FAIL” BULLSHIT. I DON’T CARE. THEY ARE KILLING US AS A PEOPLE AND JUST FOR THEM AND THEY DON’T EVEN REPRESENT A MAJORITY AND WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANGRY AND THE STRIKE IS SUPPOSED TO BE STUDENT ONLY? WRONG!!!!! IT’S EITHER KILL OR BE KILLED IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT AND WHEN WE RIOT, OF COURSE THEY SAY BAD THINGS ON TV ABOUT US BECAUSE THEY FEAR REVOLUTION AND HAVE MUCH TO FEAR FOR WORKING ON BEHALF OF THE ESTABLISHMENT THAT GOT DRUNK AND GAVE IT SELF A CRISIS. THEY ARE SO OUT OF TOUCH WITH THEIR COMFORTIBLE LIVES AS CORPORATE NEWS FUCKS KISSING ASS TO WALL ST. 24 HOURS A DAY, THEY WILL NEVER STOP MARGINALIZING US. IT’S THEIR FUCKING JOB TO NARROW US DOWN AND SEPARATE EVERYBODY SO THAT WE REMAIN WEAK BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE COLLECTIVE CAN SERVE EVERYONE BETTER AND THAT’S THE ONLY REASON WHY THERE NEEDS TO BE POLICE BECAUSE WITH OUT THEM RICH PEOPLE WOULD GET ROBED BY THE WORKINGG CLASS AND WOULD HAVE TO BECOME WORKING CLASS STIFFS LIKE EVERBODY ELSE. THEY WILL PROTECT CAPITALISM TILL IT KILLS THEM IN THE END. ANYBODY WHO’S NOT ANGRY AND DESPERATE IS OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE WORLD AND HAS NO RIGHT TO OPEN THEIR MOUTH I COULD PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE. I hope this protest movement is really fed up with playing by the rules and getting fucked every time with nothing changing around here, just the same old crony businesses men running the fucking show behind every politician and bankrupting just too many of us to stay silent. When are people going to stand their ground for all the shit they have to deal with and STOP LISTENING TO MEDIA PLEAS FOR CALM IN THE STREETS AS IF EVERYTHING IS FINE AS IF THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. MAYBE FOR THEM BUT NOT FOR US. FUCKING OUTRAGIOUS coming from their mouths when they are in bed with the same crooked crony capitalists that unleashes their fucking 1942 storm troopers on us to scare everybody so they call us terrorists instead of rising up with us against a common enemy. Misguiding the public is just apart of their job when it comes to activism as a means to change society. There’s no reason to conform anymore. What is the reward for it? We’re just waiting in line to get fucked is all were doing and making up excuses for the system when it’s under attack by the people it fucked over. I just wish some of you would understand the frustration which is the reason for people wanting to cross the line into straight MILITANT ACTION. People feel hopeless and disenfranchised like their needs never matter to the ones they elect and no matter what they do, greedy capitalists always have their way and everybody is afraid to criticize capitalism because a pro-capitalist media has engrained it into their heads that you are evil if you don’t agree with it but this pyramid scheme called capitalism is the only evil thing in their lives tht is hurting them and has been evil from the start even before it’s downfall. Evil is falling apart and will not be missed once it is dead. We will be out in mass to finsh the job when it all comes crashing down like a house of cards. Capitalists want socialism when they get into trouble but force capitalism down all our throats when ever we needed help when in trouble or made bad decisions and government doesn’t come to our aid with trillions and bonuses and we are not share holders; trillions and bonuses to them while everybody else is getting fucked. I WANT TO RIOT RIGHT NOW. DO YOU NOW UNDERSTAND THE FRUSTRATION? We refuse to be marginalized for taking matters into our own hands when Washington’s only function is to serve financial terrorists. You pushed us into a corner which is why we are forced to answer to NOBODY BUT OUR SELVES FROM NOW ON BECAUSE YOU CAN’T BE TRUSTED. Your time to govern us is past. Now we take the self-governing approach. Your laws don't mean shit when government won't even follow the same laws everybody else is expected to follow and most of us don't even have the power or money to lobby to change laws to serve us like corporations and that is also why we are mad. "Why the broken glass" you ask." "Why the fires in the street?" "Why so much disrespect for authority?" "Why are we heading down a road for civil unrest?" It is your fault and you brought it upon your selves for always wanting more and not caring who you hurt in the process just to get it. It is only the one who is out of touch to ever ask such a question why violence when the American system is violent on every degree thinkable and while brainwashers go to work 24/7 to tell us “it’s going to be alright, just wait another 4 years to to change the president when what we only get a democrat or a republican and they all favor the fat cats just like media and police their all on the same side against the American people. We are the real terrorists. Homeland security was built for us to protect corporate America from the people and you know it’s fucking true. Don’t even try to lie. Everything is falling apart and innocent people are being forced at gun point to foot the bill because once you insist on stop paying taxes to protest the tax payer money goi9ng to bailouts the federal government will come for you and Waco you out of existence. FUCKING OUTRAGIOUS. WERE IS ALL THE ANGER OUT THERE? THIS FUCKING DISPICABLE GOVERNMNET. We take the ungovernable approach to change society because no politician listens and even if they listen they still don't have the muscle to take on the business world that keeps us all in check. You can marginalize our rage against the machine for now in the media but sooner or later you are going to have to answer to us because we are not answering to you anymore and that is growing out of your control. Our resistance has already been as global as oppression and it's only when people are pushed beyond the brink that they snap in what ever way they see fit when change doesn;t happen.. When people feel disenfranchised and powerless against the system that controls them, there is a feeling of needing to unite to beat back an almost unbeatable system unless we unite to fight this enemy being state and capital. There is no more hope in America and Obama was fake from the minute he turned down Main St. to bail out Wall St. People understand they are being defrauded by a group of financial terrorists which is why they are coming together and YOU CAN JAIL US ALL YOU WANT, WE'LL ADD TO THE NUMBER OF POLITICAL PRISONERS AND THAT EMBOLDENS OUR CAUSE SO LOCK US UP AND SEE HOW FAR THAT GET'S YOU. YOU ARE THE BABYLON OF THE 21 CENTURY ABOUT TO FALL. Fucking corporations, banks and federal reserve thieves have no sympathy and they put us into debt we'll NEVER BE ABLE TO GET OUT OF LIKE IMF WORLD BANK POLICIES. We're fucked unless we act. We the people workers and students and revolutionaries need to come together to fight this octopus which is a common enemy. No more divisions in society. We've been divided long enough now and now is the time for rebellion with out lying politicians and capitalists and protector’s of industry pushing the poor and working class around all the time. THESE ARE "OUR STREETS" and it's about time we atart acting like it for once. Time for us all to come together like the people of Greece in their streets. There needs to be a big response to what is going on. This is a crime what they are doing to us that cannot go unpunished. In the beginning I wanted nothing but answers and when I grew up I learned that action speaks louder than words. We are done talking and nows about ready the time to act. Fuck the dialog when it’s not getting anywhere.. Been there done that and now I’m done. Too fed up with lies and feeling abandon by a system that expects everyone to do everything their way all the fucking time and it just get’s us no where. Spain after the 1936 ANARCHIST SPANISH REVOLUTION is the only world I’m after now and I’m not gonna ask for it. I’m just gona take it with out asking. Forget being friends with a power structure that is your worst enemy. They control what you think and there for what you do and it's not even in your best interest. Propaganda bullshit machine has to go WE DON'T NEED A PERMIT FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH! WE ARE BUT A BUT A BUNCH OF SLAVES WAITING TO FREE OUR SELVES FROM THE TENTACLES OF AUTHORITARIAN CAPITALISM AND WILL NO LONGER MAKE DEALS WITH THE DEVIL FOR WE ARE NOT FREE JUST BECAUSE OUR MASTERS GIVE US LONGER CHAINS AND BIGGER PRISON TO ROAM AROUND IN.

FUCKING COPS MIGHT AS WELL BE CALLED PROTECTORS OF THIEVES. OH, THAT’S RIGHT I FORGOT YOU’RE NOT PAID TO THINK FOR YOUR SELVES JUST TO TAKE ORDERS AND ROUGH EVERYONE UP WHEN EVER YOU GET THE CHANCE. WE KNOW WHAT YOUR ABOUT. Remember that next time you’re out in the streets, you are not paid by tax payer money to think for your selves but to take orders in a society that revolves around perpetual war with everyone except the rich in order to maintain their wet dream being our worst nightmare. you are nothing pawns in a chess game that goes way over your head in understanding. People who become police officers are people who'll never have the mental capacity to live in an anarchist society that runs things collectively because they always feel the need to push people around. WHY DO YOU BuY INTO THE LIE THAT SOCIETY CAN'T BE ORGANIZED WITH OUT EVERONE BEING TOLD WHAT TO DO. IS WORKING TOGETHER TEAMWORK THAT FUCKING HARD TO GRASP? sPANISH rebellion of 1936 was an anarchist one that lasted for 3 years before a ruthless military came in and destroyed just to fuck the day and why????? Just so a greedy few could COULD RUN THE WORLD TODAY open a bottle of champaign and celebrate the birth of OUR DEATH“divide and conquer”. Every night you people are living IT up while others go to bed starving and you are a crime to humanity. SHAME! YOU CAN’T STAND TO SEE PEOPLE LIVING INDEPENDENT FROM GOVERNMENT BECAUSE SUCH THAT KIND OF CULTURE ANARCHIST CULTURE A SYSTEM THAT HAS PROVEN TO WORK BEFORE THREATENS YOUR ABILITY TO BE KING OF THE BLOCK YOUR WHOLE LIFE. GIVE IT UP. We can come together we don’t need the government or people bossing us around at work to do our jobs and know how to do it and learn how to do it. That frightens you. This is what you are afraid of because you can't rule and infiltrate in a collective society so you have to use your military you fucking twisted fucks. Always have to make sure the means of production and distribution remain out of the workers hands police helping to maintain order for the powerful elite so we may never break free from wage slavery one day.

"WE DON'T NEED A PERMIT FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH! WE ARE A BUNCH OF SLAVES WAITING TO FREE OUR SELVES FROM THE TENTACLES OF AUTHORITARIAN CAPITALISM AND WILL NO LONGER MAKE DEALS WITH THE DEVIL FOR WE ARE NOT FREE JUST BECAUSE OUR MASTERS GIVE US LONGER CHAINS AND BIGGER PRISONS TO ROAM AROUND IN. "

More freedom in this case "longer leash" is the opposite of what they are giving us. The leash gets shorter with time and with every new protest movement that springs up and gains momentum and influence. Corporate welfare (handouts), cuts in social services, endless war and raising taxes on the poor have always been triggers for revolution. These are the triggers that unveil the true nature of every government. The state comes down hard and quick with an iron fist every chance it get's to prove it's superiority against the free will of the people and against the principles of rebellious direct democracy. Violent Rebellion is the backbone for a healthy democracy. That means it is a critical element and with out it, we get ruled or should I say owned. Remember when you criticize violent activists that violent activism was responsible for the creation of the United States of America that you support so much. America is no longer ruled under the British system but is still run by a government so nothing much has changed. Looking at it today everyone has been re-educated-programmed-brainwashed to hate the true fundamentals of a healthy democracy that only comes with rebellious confrontation with state and capital. We've been indoctrinated to hate breaking the rules to affect changes that need to be made as the builders of this nation say they did but of course they didn't really institute anything but wage slavery and tyranny of the capitalist. They too were called terrorists by the British and you would support them so calling us terrorists is disagreeing with the founding fathers which is very un-American. Congratulations. Always knew you had it in you. Not supporting your local resistance movement is making life easier for ones we are trying to overthrow. Why are you helping the tyrants? You're doing a good job for nobody but the elite the government is working for. It only works to keep the slaves obedient to their boss at work. That's their main function is to save the aristocracy. The problem of tyranny never went away after the American Revolution. It just went from one dictatorship to another and that's all we're left to work with. We can do better than that she wrote. Whether it is a socialist or capitalist government, it's still a government that is only necessary to maintain order in societies that are of great inequality, despair and frustration. Just because it's being run by your own country and not somebody else doesn't actually make it any more or less representative of the people. The only thing that matters are the policies going into action and when government proves working for the little guy is impossible we need a real alternative to government which is called collective communalism. There is no difference whether we are ruled by some far away nation or ruled right here at home. Either way we're being ruled by a republic that is not democratic. Either way it's still there meant to keep you down and oppressed and meant to impede radical social changes that never get made so long as we refuse to fight the system. The upper class hates radical change because when radical changes are made, they lose control over everybody and turn poor by those they impoverish. Government is only there to put down the coming anti-capitalist insurrection so working people may never be able to manage their own affairs and will always live at the mercy of the boss and their wage slave system. True freedom is not something that is governed or given by government or your dollars. Freedom was never given to the peasants and people that fought and died in revolutions of the past were never given freedom. In order to rebel, laws had to be broken, and violence is only apart of that. The War on Terror is for a phony cause you might support and not only do they destroy property but they maim and murder innocent woman and children. Protesting peacefully against the war and against capitalism doesn't work. You got to fight fire with fire because anybody as stubborn as they are giving people reasons to attack us like meddling in peoples affairs and starting wars for oil need to be overthrown. There has to be direct confrontation with the state in order to bring democracy to the table. True democracy is not something that can be revoked. True democracy in direct action is a powerful force that can't be beaten. There are no rulers in a direct democracy and we have rulers everywhere which is why now is the time to act.